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Facebook, Twitter and Google Berated by Senators on Russia (bbc.com)
From a BBC report: Russian operatives, likely working from St Petersburg, provoked angry Americans to take to the streets, a US Senate committee heard on Wednesday. The May 2016 protest, arranged by a group named Heart of Texas, was one example of Kremlin-backed efforts to destabilise the American electoral process. Lawyers for three technology companies -- Facebook, Twitter and Google -- were told they were grossly underestimating the scale of the problem. "You just don't get it," said California Senator Dianne Feinstein. "What we're talking about is a cataclysmic change. What we're talking about is the beginning of cyber-warfare." She added: "We are not going to go away, gentlemen. This is a very big deal." [...] Several senators suggested that more hearings and consultation would be needed, expressing their frustration that the companies were not being represented by higher-ranking executives. "I'm disappointed that you're here, and not your CEOs," said independent senator Angus King. From a FastCompany report: Senator Mark Warner (D-VA) had one specific and simple question for Facebook's Colin Stretch. He wanted to know about 30,000 fake accounts Facebook discovered earlier this year that were trying to influence the French election. At the time, Facebook bragged that it was able to discover these accounts and swiftly took them down. Warner wanted to know if Facebook, after discovering these accounts, cross-checked to see if these same accounts also tried to tamper with the U.S. election. "Your leadership bragged about how proactively you were in the French election process," said Warner, "Did you check those accounts [with the U.S. election]?" Stretch couldn't give a straight answer. "The system that ran to take down those accounts -- which were fake accounts of all type and any purpose -- is now active worldwide," he said. Warner wasn't amused. "Just answer my question," he said. "Have you reviewed the accounts you took down in France that were Russian-related to see if they played any role in the American election?" Once again, Facebook couldn't answer.
"I'm disappointed that you're here, and not your CEOs," said independent senator Angus King. "If we go through this exercise again we should appreciate seeing the top people."
"I'm sorry senator, Zuck is at a party smashing teen butthole right now and can't attend"
In his oafish and treasonous style Donald Trump has protected his masters in Russia from accountability for their ongoing attacks on America.
Moscow Donald has blocked election related sanctions on Russia, because he is a traitor.
Mr Golden Shower continues to deny that Russia even interfered in our election though the evidence is clear.
Moscow Donald is a clear and present danger to the United States of America, and must be removed from office before he and Russia can do more damage to our country.
All these silicon valley people skewing things around to help Trump!
I'm sure the celebrities and college professors are right behind the tech firms.
Facebook, Twitter and Google Berated by Senators on Russia
Took a bit to parse this.
Logically it feels more like the subjects are just swapped. "Russia Berated by Senators on Facebook, Twitter, and Google"
Then it looks like the senators that are doing the berating are Russian.
It would need to read something like, "Senators berate Facebook, Twitter, and Google on Russian Interference"
Do not look into laser with remaining eye.
I'm confused. They got MORE Americans to get out and vote. That's practically the holy grail of democratic elections. In a country that historically has dismal voter turnout!
Or are we all just pissed that the 'wrong' people voted? Maybe next time the 'right' people can get out and vote instead...
.. i'm sure they can see and understand the evidence a whole lot better than Feinstein.
Who secured that deal?
Why would any top Silicon Valley CEO waste a day being lectured by the incompetents in Washington, D.C.? Even a lower executive is too much. Next time they should send the summer interns to just take notes and deposit them to the suggestion box (read : trash can) on the way out.
Did "Russian" propaganda compel YOU to vote for Trump?
“He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
Who is the US government to say who a private company takes business from? The Citizen's United verdict states that money is free speech, and thus is protected by the 1A, even if it may be a foreign government.
Looks like the luddites are witching the tech companies out of spite.
That's a nice company you've got there, sure would be a shame if something happened to it...
John McAfee 'It was like that time I hired that Bangkok prostitute; to do my taxes, while I fucked my accountant'
That they are agents of different state, while always being agents of a fascist state.
They can berate all they want. They can't get any meaningful legislation through. This is all just deck chairs on the Titanic. Meanwhile the Republicans are 3 seats away from holding a Constitutional Convention. That should end well.
Hi! I make Firefox Plug-ins. Check 'em out @ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/youtube-mp3-podcaster/
here's the deal: Would any of these Democrats care about Russian influence if Hilary had won due to it? I mean, no one cared back in the 90's when China was buying the Clintons the White House.
What's Facebook, Twitter and Google's involvement with Russian dressing. Foodies want to know...
Contempt of Congress is a dangerous game that threatens millions of dollars in lobbying and hundreds of lobbyist jobs. After all, we're just a few short votes from requiring that every US corporation store all of its data in the United States, breaking transnationals apart left and right.
"provoked angry Americans to take to the streets"? How? By exposing what the Democrats have been doing?
If the people are that easy to "provoke", then obviously there is something there to provoke them. Something more than a Facebook post. This is another example of the Democrats looking for an exterior reason for why their continuing indulgence in identity politics is not working for them. If you don't want Russia (or Israel) to have such an easy time "manipulating" elections, stop making it so easy for them.
Aah, change is good. -- Rafiki
Yeah, but it ain't easy. -- Simba
This was just a bunch of grandstanding and none of it will go anywhere, too easily to run into 1st amendment issues.
So the Russians basically whipped up already very angry and divided Americans. Much of this can be attributed to our paralyzed and ineffective Senate and law makers in general. I imagine these tactics would have been much less successful if you didn't already have such an angry populace. They need to take some of the blame and not just point fingers at others.
I'm not sure what was more fun to watch; a bunch of old dummies asking useless questions or highly paid corporate lawyers squirm in their chairs.
Strangely enough twitter can't tell how fat its users are! And -of course- only US dollars can be the trusted source of meme funding. Don't forget to text your votes to #5555!
Ahh good times, good times...
Check it out, a politician is demanding that a citizen give a straight answer!
So if some site in Russia is posting divisive crap to try to manipulate American opinions, that's bad. But if some idiot in Boulder creates an opaque network of sites posting divisive crap to drive ad revenue, well that's just fine?
Some tools are just tools, and you need to look at the users to figure out if the tool is being used badly. The tools in question are DESIGNED to divide us and influence us to do things we wouldn't choose to do if we actually thought about it. Russia having access to these tools is a relatively minor problem in the overall scheme of things, but I guess it's easier to blame Russia, throw in some stupid "fixes" which don't address the underlying problem, and claim victory.
That's a nice office you've been elected into, sure would be a shame if a corporation with more money than you can comprehend decides to buy the next election for your competitor.
California Senator Dianne Feinstein said: Nothing of value.
When in danger
When in doubt
Run in circles
Scream and shout
Have you reviewed the accounts you took down ...
So, taken-down Russian accounts can still post fake news? Or, Feinstein (and friend) is yelling "Danger, US voter, Danger" again. Her involvement almost proves it's not important.
No, that involves deliberate damage of data on a computer. Making a bunch of dumb yanks think there's a child prostitution business under a pizza shop is social engineering, or plain ol' propaganda.
The creators of Heart of Texas not only targeted the sociopolitical tensions within the United States. They also exploited our gullibility, which turned out to be far greater than I could have ever imagined. And by assisting them in this massive lie, Facebook has enabled one of the greatest frauds in recent American history.
-- Washington Post
Don't blame Americans for a lack of cultural unity, don't blame Americans for their small-minded gullibility, blame Facebook for "enabling". Alas, the problem with teaching the villagers to scream "witch", is the Salem witch trials.
Facebook also enabled stories from Clinton, Trump and Fox News, but that shit don't get a mention because it was made in the USA.
Overall it seems to cause more problems than the alleged 'benefits' it provides. Twitter, Facebook, etc, please just die.
Two words speak louder than anything. Google, Facebook and Twitter get it. They did it for the Ad Revenue. Plan and simple. The online advertising industry is wild wild west and it is a joke. Anything can be stated without any facts as long as you pay for the ad campaign.
No. We're saying the British should not have been running psy-ops on Americans in order to influence elections and destabilize our political system. Which the British weren't. So that's good.
That's how the world SHOULD work. But not how it does.
John McAfee 'It was like that time I hired that Bangkok prostitute; to do my taxes, while I fucked my accountant'
So in other words you absorbed and spread Russian propaganda as an unwitting tool of the KGB.
Well the issue at hand is that it was assumed that the vast majority of US citizens were good people who generally did not desire the total destruction of the country followed shortly by the world and possibly the entire planet through global thermonuclear war. Unfortunately, baked into this admittedly possibly naive but up until recently provably true assumption was the additional and quite fatal assumption that hostile foreign entities weren't participating in the conversation at all so it didn't need to be validated or secured in any real way from such a threat.
The 2016 election is a massive data point against the assumption that companies can just "buy" an election. All the corporate interests were aligned with Clinton. She raised and spent twice as much as Trump. All after Trump beat out better finances candidates in the GOP primary.
I do hope you realise that you're addressing a bunch of ideologists and opportunists who frequently name their companies, kids, projects, etc., after Ayn Rand and titles and characters from her novels. They don't believe in big gubbermint, except for a source of very lucrative contracts, and so really don't believe they have to listen to you. Freeze their big gubbermint contracts and then ask them your questions. You'll get a much more sincere response from them then. Then again, they may just turn around and tell you to pry their computer keyboards from their cold dead hands :P
Debate is a form of harassment. Do not question my truth.
How out of touch are the Senators that they think having the CEO come talk with them would be of any real value? They're clueless of how business works. It's best to have the actual experts come and give answers than the CEO. Do they want actual information or just a dog and pony show?
If they were able to create this much division with that little money, maybe these morons-on-the-hill should be looking at their own actions. As far as I can tell, this is the readily predictable end-result of focusing on identity politics (both sides), but there's no introspection going on at all. It's like you have to be pathologically incapable of self-reflection and accepting blame to rise to this level of politics.
I'm amazed how they all earn BILLIONS yet I don't pay them.
I give them my information for free.
Why?
When Democrats win people are well informed. When Republicans win people were duped. Duh!?
Your implication is that only one choice is the "correct, informed" choice.
That IS the correct answer. Thanks for sharing!
These tools are not for the vast majority of Americans. They are for institutions to manipulate the public - that's what advertising is.
They are a bunch of liars.. who in order to misdirect the public, and provoking fear by hyping up what happens ACROSS THE WOLRD, BY EVERY COUNTRY.... ie.. the dark arts. The sad thing is the American public is dumb enough to fall for this shit.
By that, it fails at being the United States of America.
A long talk needs to be had on this whole situation.
Also Feinstein is a fucking authoritarian cunt on the same level as many republicans, so I give fuck all about her opinion on this particular subject.
Both the Democrats and Republicans need a purge from their most incumbent Sentators to their least, with a VERY short list of exclusions, the most notable of which I can think of being Ron Wyden, one of the few senators who seems to consistently vote against the stupid shit congress tries to pass that is either pro-authoritarianism, pro-ip, or anti-freedom of the internet.
In order for America to survive the upcoming 'cyber warfare' as they say, we need to start raising a generation of free thinkers, not a bunch of mentally lazy toadies like we have since at least the 70s. I don't hold out much hope for the future in America however.
The interests of social media companies and the interests of politicians are divergent. What interests the public and the public interest are divergent. Very little of this is about the truth, it is about self interest.
What we are seeing is social media acting as a big multiplier of the Herman Chomsky media filters, aka group think.
Comment removed based on user account deletion
Your implication is that only one choice is the "correct, informed" choice.
Actually, no it isn't. I simply request that a rational argument be made by the voter in question. I don't have to agree with it. An *irrational vote* is as dangerous as flipping a coin.
There were rational arguments for all four major-ish candidates in the last cycle, IMO.
Hire a Linux system administrator, systems engineer,
I'm sure this is creimer doxing himself for sympathy.